IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v250y2019icp713-728.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Variances in residential heating consumption – Importance of building characteristics and occupants analysed by movers and stayers

Author

Listed:
  • van den Brom, Paula
  • Hansen, Anders Rhiger
  • Gram-Hanssen, Kirsten
  • Meijer, Arjen
  • Visscher, Henk

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that occupants have a significant influence on the variation in residential heating consumption. However, the scale of that influence lacks empirical investigation. The aim of this study was to distinguish which part of the variance in actual residential heating consumption can be attributed to the occupants, and which part to the building itself. This was achieved by applying and extending a method suggested by Sonderegger in 1978, using updated and significantly improved data from two different countries: the Netherlands and Denmark. These data contain different types of heating supply systems (district heating and natural gas) and different housing forms (multi and single-family social housing, and private detached single-family houses). For the studied databases, the results indicate that approximately 50% of the variance in heating consumption between houses can be explained by differences related to occupants. The other 50% can be explained by the characteristics of the building itself and other physical parameters, which are often not taken into account in simulation models of heat transmission within buildings. Additional analyses indicate that the relative influence of occupants on heating consumption differs depending on the building characteristics of the dwelling. For example, the influence of occupants is larger when the building is more energy efficient. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that it is unrealistic to aim for a building simulation model that perfectly projects residential heating consumption for individual cases. However, creating building simulation models and occupant consumption profiles that accurately represent average residential heating consumption should be possible.

Suggested Citation

  • van den Brom, Paula & Hansen, Anders Rhiger & Gram-Hanssen, Kirsten & Meijer, Arjen & Visscher, Henk, 2019. "Variances in residential heating consumption – Importance of building characteristics and occupants analysed by movers and stayers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 713-728.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:713-728
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.078
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919309353
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.078?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberini, Anna & Filippini, Massimo, 2011. "Response of residential electricity demand to price: The effect of measurement error," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 889-895, September.
    2. Catalina Spataru & Mark Gillott & Matthew R. Hall, 2010. "Domestic energy and occupancy: a novel post-occupancy evaluation study," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 148-157, May.
    3. Vringer, Kees & Blok, Kornelis, 1995. "The direct and indirect energy requirements of households in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(10), pages 893-910, October.
    4. Alberini, Anna & Gans, Will & Velez-Lopez, Daniel, 2011. "Residential consumption of gas and electricity in the U.S.: The role of prices and income," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 870-881, September.
    5. Delzendeh, Elham & Wu, Song & Lee, Angela & Zhou, Ying, 2017. "The impact of occupants’ behaviours on building energy analysis: A research review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1061-1071.
    6. Menezes, Anna Carolina & Cripps, Andrew & Bouchlaghem, Dino & Buswell, Richard, 2012. "Predicted vs. actual energy performance of non-domestic buildings: Using post-occupancy evaluation data to reduce the performance gap," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 355-364.
    7. Alberini, Anna & Gans, Will & Velez-Lopez, Daniel, 2011. "Residential Consumption of Gas and Electricity in the U.S.: The Role of Prices and Income," Sustainable Development Papers 99637, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    8. Druckman, A. & Jackson, T., 2008. "Household energy consumption in the UK: A highly geographically and socio-economically disaggregated model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3167-3182, August.
    9. Verhallen, Theo M M & Raaij, W Fred, 1981. "Household Behavior and the Use of Natural Gas for Home Heating," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(3), pages 253-257, December.
    10. Kaza, Nikhil, 2010. "Understanding the spectrum of residential energy consumption: A quantile regression approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6574-6585, November.
    11. Huebner, Gesche M. & Hamilton, Ian & Chalabi, Zaid & Shipworth, David & Oreszczyn, Tadj, 2015. "Explaining domestic energy consumption – The comparative contribution of building factors, socio-demographics, behaviours and attitudes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 589-600.
    12. Fuentes, E. & Arce, L. & Salom, J., 2018. "A review of domestic hot water consumption profiles for application in systems and buildings energy performance analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1530-1547.
    13. Brounen, Dirk & Kok, Nils & Quigley, John M., 2012. "Residential energy use and conservation: Economics and demographics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(5), pages 931-945.
    14. Balaras, Constantinos A. & Dascalaki, Elena G. & Droutsa, Kalliopi G. & Kontoyiannidis, Simon, 2016. "Empirical assessment of calculated and actual heating energy use in Hellenic residential buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 115-132.
    15. Estiri, Hossein, 2014. "Building and household X-factors and energy consumption at the residential sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 178-184.
    16. Yolande Strengers & Cecily Maller, 2017. "Adapting to ‘extreme’ weather: mobile practice memories of keeping warm and cool as a climate change adaptation strategy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(6), pages 1432-1450, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Walery Jezierski & Mirosław Zukowski & Beata Sadowska, 2020. "Analysis of the Impact of Self-Isolation of Residents during a Pandemic on Energy Demand and Indoor Air Quality in a Single-Family Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-24, December.
    2. Nis Bertelsen & Brian Vad Mathiesen, 2020. "EU-28 Residential Heat Supply and Consumption: Historical Development and Status," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Trotta, Gianluca & Hansen, Anders Rhiger & Sommer, Stephan, 2022. "The price elasticity of residential district heating demand: New evidence from a dynamic panel approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Lia Marchi & Jacopo Gaspari, 2023. "Energy Conservation at Home: A Critical Review on the Role of End-User Behavior," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Martin Burgess & Mark Whitehead, 2020. "Just Transitions , Poverty and Energy Consumption: Personal Carbon Accounts and Households in Poverty," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-24, November.
    6. Joanna Piotrowska-Woroniak & Tomasz Szul & Krzysztof Cieśliński & Jozef Krilek, 2022. "The Impact of Weather-Forecast-Based Regulation on Energy Savings for Heating in Multi-Family Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-30, October.
    7. Anders Rhiger Hansen & Daniel Leiria & Hicham Johra & Anna Marszal-Pomianowska, 2022. "Who Produces the Peaks? Household Variation in Peak Energy Demand for Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-23, December.
    8. Yang, Xining & Hu, Mingming & Heeren, Niko & Zhang, Chunbo & Verhagen, Teun & Tukker, Arnold & Steubing, Bernhard, 2020. "A combined GIS-archetype approach to model residential space heating energy: A case study for the Netherlands including validation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    9. Ozarisoy, B. & Altan, H., 2022. "Significance of occupancy patterns and habitual household adaptive behaviour on home-energy performance of post-war social-housing estate in the South-eastern Mediterranean climate: Energy policy desi," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PB).
    10. Beata Sadowska & Joanna Piotrowska-Woroniak & Grzegorz Woroniak & Wiesław Sarosiek, 2022. "Energy and Economic Efficiency of the Thermomodernization of an Educational Building and Reduction of Pollutant Emissions—A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-31, April.
    11. Rui Zhou & Hiroatsu Fukuda & You Li & Yafei Wang, 2023. "Comparison of Willingness to Pay for Quality Air and Renewable Energy Considering Urban Living Experience," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-21, January.
    12. Soltero, V.M. & Quirosa, Gonzalo & Peralta, M.E. & Chacartegui, Ricardo & Torres, Miguel, 2022. "A biomass universal district heating model for sustainability evaluation for geographical areas with early experience," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Franz Fuerst & Dimitra Kavarnou & Ramandeep Singh & Hassan Adan, 2020. "Determinants of energy consumption and exposure to energy price risk: a UK study [Determinanten des Energieverbrauchs und Energiepreisrisiko: Eine Studie aus Großbritannien]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 6(1), pages 65-80, April.
    2. Hendrik Schmitz & Reinhard Madlener, 2020. "Heterogeneity in price responsiveness for residential space heating in Germany," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 2255-2281, November.
    3. Estiri, Hossein & Zagheni, Emilio, 2018. "Evaluating the Age-Energy Consumption Profile in Residential Buildings," SocArXiv yqkva, Center for Open Science.
    4. Javier Bueno & Desiderio Romero-Jordán & Pablo del Río, 2020. "Analysing the Drivers of Electricity Demand in Spain after the Economic Crisis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Nina Boogen & Souvik Datta & Massimo Filippini, 2014. "Going beyond tradition: Estimating residential electricity demand using an appliance index and energy services," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 14/200, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    6. Salomé Bakaloglou and Dorothée Charlier, 2019. "Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much do Individual Preferences Matter?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    7. Ivan Tilov & Benjamin Volland & Mehdi Farsi, 2017. "Interactions in Swiss Households' Energy Demand: A Holistic Approach," IRENE Working Papers 17-11, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    8. Salari, Mahmoud & Javid, Roxana J., 2017. "Modeling household energy expenditure in the United States," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 822-832.
    9. Jia, Jun-Jun & Guo, Jin & Wei, Chu, 2021. "Elasticities of residential electricity demand in China under increasing-block pricing constraint: New estimation using household survey data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Tilov, Ivan & Farsi, Mehdi & Volland, Benjamin, 2020. "From frugal Jane to wasteful John: A quantile regression analysis of Swiss households’ electricity demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    11. Kostakis, Ioannis & Lolos, Sarantis & Sardianou, Eleni, 2021. "Residential natural gas demand: Assessing the evidence from Greece using pseudo-panels, 2012–2019," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    12. Cheng, Fenfen & Yang, Shanlin & Zhou, Kaile, 2020. "Quantile partial adjustment model with application to predicting energy demand in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    13. Trotta, Gianluca & Hansen, Anders Rhiger & Sommer, Stephan, 2022. "The price elasticity of residential district heating demand: New evidence from a dynamic panel approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    14. Ryu, Jun-Yeol & Kim, Dae-Wook & Kim, Man-Keun, 2021. "Household differentiation and residential electricity demand in Korea," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    15. Anders Rhiger Hansen & Daniel Leiria & Hicham Johra & Anna Marszal-Pomianowska, 2022. "Who Produces the Peaks? Household Variation in Peak Energy Demand for Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-23, December.
    16. Tilov, Ivan & Farsi, Mehdi & Volland, Benjamin, 2019. "Interactions in Swiss households’ energy demand: A holistic approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 136-149.
    17. Dorothée Charlier & Sondès Kahouli, 2018. "Fuel poverty and residential energy demand: how fuel-poor households react to energy price fluctuations," Post-Print halshs-01957771, HAL.
    18. Dorothee Charlier and Sondes Kahouli, 2019. "From Residential Energy Demand to Fuel Poverty: Income-induced Non-linearities in the Reactions of Households to Energy Price Fluctuations," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    19. Ohler, Adrienne M. & Billger, Sherrilyn M., 2014. "Does environmental concern change the tragedy of the commons? Factors affecting energy saving behaviors and electricity usage," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-12.
    20. Kiran B Krishnamurthy, Chandra & Kriström, Bengt, 2013. "A cross-country analysis of residential electricity demand in 11 OECD-countries," CERE Working Papers 2013:5, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics, revised 30 Jun 2014.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:713-728. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.